The Debt

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan, Alex

I haven't seen the original film but when I saw Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman's names as part of the team of screenwriters I had some hope. I did like the James Bond spy spin they put on the X-Men franchise earlier in the year. But this one was never that engaging for me.

It has a cool cast. The younger versions of the characters really don't look much like the older versions. Like at all. And never give Sam Worthington a role where he needs to do any kind of accent other than Australian. Really.

It's serviceable.

Moneyball

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Paul, Kim

I can see why Aaron Sorkin would be drawn to this story, he loves writing about the behind the scene running of institutions we are all familiar with but never give a second thought to how they work. Here, that institution is Baseball and thankfully for me, you don't need to understand how the game works or even sit through much of it to enjoy the film.

So don't go in expecting an underdog sporting team motivational movie. Whilst it does have those elements they aren't the focus, this is a dialogue driven drama. And it's a pretty good one too. I enjoyed it muchly.

Spike Jonze totally shows up, I called it. I thought it was him but wasn't sure and his name isn't on the credit list, but it is him. I don't know why the jump to acting but he was quite funny.

The film does have one pet peeve of mine and that it captions at the end of the film that explain the aftermath. This one had SUCH a great ending point and I really felt it it was the perfect place to leave the film. But that's probably just me.

While it's a subject that doesn't get me excited the drama was still engaging and the characters were interesting enough to invest in.

Shark Night

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

Whooooooooo boy. It's not good. But not everything can be as glorious as Piranha. Firstly, it's not r-rated, which means there no awesome gore or nudity. There is also a lot of the worst scripted horrendous teen melodrama I've seen in any "horror" film in a long time. And is it just me, or is this film a little bit raciest? That Black guy, gee whiz...

The only good things this film had going for it was a premise for having sharks in a lake that is so absurd it's hilarious and one or two big fish out of water deaths that are pretty funny. And the films stars Sara Paxton and Chris Carmack in conflict, so I liked to think of it as Aquamarine vs Lovewrecked.

The 3D is very amateurish. Convergence points are all over the place. The underwater shots must have been shot with two cameras side by side because they are extremely hard to reconstitute in your brain. So much depth. And then half of the shots on land are so close together there is no depth at all, it's just 2D. Most annoyingly, simple 2 headed conversations have widely different amounts of depth despite being the same framing cutting back and fourth.

I know Piranha opted for post conversion due to the unrecognisable light reflections the sun creates on the surface of water. It's really only an issue in a couple of shots in this film though, of course being called Shark Night, you'd expect a great deal of it to actually take place at night, where this isn't as much of an issue.

The bad guys in this a horrifically cartoonish. But worse are all the main characters who are so annoying you just want them to die immediately.

The film has few redeeming qualities and is probably best used as an example of how 3D can be done wrong. A great learning tool. Added bonus was we were the only people in the cinema so we could commentate as loudly as we pleased. They also screwed up the 3D projection, almost giving us an epileptic fit from the strobing, but they were kind enough to start the film again once they sorted the problem out.

Our Idiot Brother

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

I'm a big Paul Rudd fan and this film just every bit as charming and easy going as his character. Very enjoyable.

And it has such an awesome cast. Even all the bit parts and supporting players are great. The story it's telling is very simple. Rudd plays Ned, a very trusting and loving guy who keeps getting put into troublesome situations because of other peoples problems and being blamed for it.

There's really that much more to say about it, it's charming, feel good, very enjoyable.

Drive

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan, Paul

Here's my first write up. The structuring becomings abundantly clear the second time through. You also realise how much time it takes to set up the events and characters. I suppose walking out of the film the first time you are too busy to think about all the events in the last half of the film to remember how much is done in the first half.

I also want to mention fonts quickly. I really liked the font they used for the titles in this film. It's just screams L.A. and has a very 80's vibe too it. Also having just watched Anonymous and seeing the unimaginative and rather cheap looking standard Herculean font used in abundance it really did make me appreciate it more. Anonymous looks like it was made in iMovie and Drive looks like it was optically composited on film. Fonts make a difference.

A friend had posted this on facebook JUST as I got back from the screening. Strangely enough it was something I was thinking about a lot during the film, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Anonymous

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Alex

Well it's certainly a welcome change up for Roland Emmerich, who after destroying the planet in every conceivable way has set his sights on destroying a mere reputation. Was Shakespeare a fraud? Truth be told, I don't really care and the film is gracious enough not to present its story as fact. What I do care about was if the story being told was worth it.

It's entertaining, very slickly produced and has a brilliant cast. Yes, I'd say it was worth it.

The theory the film presents is wedged in a framework of a play being presented in present day. This works thematically and allows some wriggle room with possibly historical inaccuracy, especially when juxtaposed with Shakespeare's own writings of historical drama. In fact some of the revelations towards the end of the film are incredible enough to make them feel more akin to the bard's tragic works rather than a historical fact.

The period has been recreated beautifully and thanks to those wonderful effects artists working on scaled pay after the success of their collaboration with Emmerich on 2012, we get to see beautiful vistas of old england recreated before our eyes. The costumes and sets are all wonderfully detailed.

I barely recognised Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford. Rafe Spall is delightfully annoying as this version of William Shakespeare and real life mother and daughter Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson breath new life into Queen Elizabeth I over numerous time periods.

Did I mention the time periods? Not only does the film have a present day bookend, but the the story has it's own bookends plus it jumps freely back and fourth in time throughout. It takes its time to settle into place and is a little annoying at first. I'm not sure what it adds to the proceedings either.

I loved the score for this films one sex scene, it was intriguing and a little unusual. The rest of the music was rather mundane. Minor complaints though, technically the film is very proficient. It certainly has more glorious 3D matte paintings and wide views than any stuffy period drama I've ever seen. While I'm sure Emmerich is itching to get back to destroying the world this diversion proved to be very fruitful. Regardless of what you think of the theory it presents, it's sure to hold your attention.

In Time

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Josh, Tyler

Here's my first viewing. The logic of the world probably doesn't hold up as well second time through, but still fun. Similarities to the musical Urinetown were pointed out to me. I like to think that although the film ends kind of on a happy note, you have to assume the events directly after this is a total economic collapse and a complete disaster. That would be interesting to see...